The Second Italo-Ethiopian War
The Second Italo-Ethiopian War was a colonial war that took place between October 1935 and May 1936. It opposed the kingdom of Italy and Ethiopia (then known as Abyssinia). The war was one of the events that led to World War 2. The Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, wanted to create a new Roman Empire and expand his colonial rule. The Italians also wanted revenge for the humiliating defeat that they endured in the hands of Ethiopia in 1895. This war not only showed Benito Mussolini's ambitions as a major power but it also revealed the faults of the struggling League of Nations, who failed to deal with the situation. Start of the War Benito Mussolini saw Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany on the rise, having already annexed Austria. He seeked to create a strong nation to equal Germany and therefore looked to Africa for a stepping stone. Italy already controlled Somalia and Erithrea, small Eastern African colonies. Both neighboured Ethiopia. Ethiopia was one of Africa's only independant countries and was ruled by a "god king" Hallie Salassie. Salassie had ambitions of his own. He sent skirmishes to try and gain territories from Italian Erithrea. Mussolini saw this as an opportunity and after making sure that no major powers would pick sides, Italy started amassing troops on the border. De Bono was named to lead the Italians throughout this campaign. Italy's army consisted of 500,000 well equipped soldiers accompanied by 600 aircrafts and 800 tanks. Ethiopia had an unorganised, badly equipped strength of 800,000 soldiers who even fought barefoot. They also only had 3 tanks and 3 aircrafts. De Bono lead his troops into Ethiopia and soon after, the african nation declared war on Italy the 3rd of October 1935. In order to gain support from locals, De Bono proclaimed the abolition of slavery. This did not have any effect however, and the battles raged on. De Bono moved meticulously and carefully through the country, winning a battle at a time but was too slow and cautious for Mussolini's taste and was fired the 16th of November to be replaced by Pietro Badoglio. In November 1935, the Ethiopian king, Salassie, plead to the League of Nations for help as his army was overwhelmed. The League agreed and imposed economic sanctions on Italy. Yet these sanctions did little if not nothing and the League failed to impose the toughest sanction of all: the cutting of oil supplies sent to Italy. Salassie ordered a counter attack in what was known the Ethiopian Christmas Offensive. They moved quickly and effectively and cought the Italians by suprise. Much machinery was destroyed yet only 3,000 men from the Italian army were killed. End of the War During the war, Britain and France tried to do a pact with Italy in which they would give them economic influence over Ethiopia and parts of its territory in exchange for the war to stop. Ethiopia found out however, and the pact was quickly dissolved. In January 1936, the Ethiopian offensives were halted and the Italians pushed back with force. They began using poison gas against the opposition. This was against international law, yet Italy countered by claiming that their prisoners were being tortured in Ethiopian prisons. In January and Febuary, Badoglio won the decisive battles of Tembien, Amba Aradam and the second battle of Tembien. The Italians then started crushing the Ethiopian forces in the northern and southern fronts. On the 2nd of May 1936, Salassie escaped by train and fled the country. He exiled himself to the UK. Afterwards, Badoglio marched his troops to the capital, Addis Ababa. On the 1st of June 1936, Ethiopia was merged into the Italian colonial empire. On the 15th of July, international sanctions on Italy were lifted. Category:1935 Category:1936